1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to dispensers generally, and more particularly to dispensers that are controlled responsive to indicia upon a fluid receptacle to dispense a particular product mixture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various commercial establishments, including supermarkets and many other diverse outlets, sell a wide variety of fluid products in various containers. A specific example of a fluid product is a liquid laundry detergent sold in relatively large plastic containers having a screw-type cap or closure. Consumers of such liquid products frequently discard the containers after using the contents. The discarded empty containers then migrate into a waste disposal area such as a landfill.
If an alternate system were used whereby a customer would bring back the empty original container to the commercial establishment for refilling the container, using a user friendly method as will be described below in connection with the present invention, then the following benefits may be attained:
1. The commercial establishment can profitably vend or sell the liquid product for refilling at a price significantly lower than the original sales price. The lower price will financially motivate the customer to return with the empty container for refilling. The commercial establishment will use relatively low-cost bulk quantities of the liquid product for refilling, which helps to maintain a strong profit margin for the commercial establishment.
2. Refilling and reuse of containers breaks the cycle of “use and discard”, which keeps empty containers out of the landfills with obvious benefit to society.
3. Delivery of bulk product directly to consumer illustrated herein requires less handling labor and shipping-type packaging materials than traditional methods, further reducing cost and landfill waste production.
4. Bulk packaging reduces the retail shelf space required for display/delivery of product to a customer. Where consumer packaging tends to be relatively inefficient at using precious retail shelf space, bulk dispensers illustrated herein offer space/product ratio improvement.
5. Appropriate dispensing options in accord with the present invention enable dispensing a nearly unlimited combination of base and optional ingredients into a consumer's container. The more options presented to a consumer in the traditional prepackaged environment, the more precious retail shelf space that is required. Consequently, in the prior art the consumer's product choices were extremely limited.
Thus the present invention provides financial benefits to both commercial establishments/vendors and consumers/customers, while also facilitating a reduction in solid waste as a benefit to society and enabling a broader selection of product choices to meet a particular customer's needs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,818 to Bradbury, et al. discloses a method and apparatus for vending a containerized product on multiple occasions. In the Bradbury patent, a customer initially purchases a fluid-filled container with a bar code that indicates the price of the container. Upon emptying the container, the customer returns to the store and refills the container at a refill station. The refill station modifies the bar code on the container to indicate that the container has been refilled. Thus, when the customer checks out, he or she is only charged for the refill, and not the container. A major disadvantage of the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,818 is that it does not read the bar code at the time of filling, limiting the Bradbury et al invention to a single product. Nevertheless, it still requires a relatively complex apparatus for modifying the bar code on the container to indicate that the container has been refilled. This complexity has been avoided in the present invention, while simultaneously enabling a much more diverse range of products to be dispensed.